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Leadville for adventure, Salida for Western lifestyle

Brief by Central Staff

Towns – June 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

We note that Leadville, America’s highest incorporated city, has been honored by Men’s Journal magazine as the “Best Adventure Mecca.” The magazine’s website says:

“You’re tired of your soft life. Your roof rack has been collecting dust in the corner of the garage for too long. You’ve had enough fancy dinners, movie nights, and PTA meetings for one lifetime. You want rock, sky, rapids, altitude, dirt, snow, and great coffee. Don’t look down, just jump. Move to Leadville.”

That distinction could fit well into the “Headwaters of Adventure” marketing program, except that Headwaters is a promotion for Chaffee County, and Leadville is upstream in Lake County.

The magazine listed four other “Adventure Towns” : Driggs, Idaho; Santa Cruz, Calif.; Sitka, Alaska; and Bend, Ore.

That’s a good segue into another recent distinction, because Bend was also listed as one of the twenty best places to live in the West by American Cowboy magazine. And another of the twenty was Salida, of which it says:

“Perched high in the Rockies, Salida is surrounded by mountain wilderness. With the Sawatch Range and the Sangre de Cristo mountains nearby, world-class rafting, hunting, skiing, and fishing are at your fingertips. During the holidays, ‘Christmas Mountain’ lights up the night sky.”

Steamboat Springs was the only other Colorado town to make that list.